Monday, May 12, 2008

The view here is from above-several thousand feet above the ground-in flight to Seattle.

I traveled late in the day and as i was flying west-from Jersey to Washington state-i followed the sun on it's decent-beautiful sights, such as the snow capped mountain ranges and rivers of the northwest-I am uneasy with flying, yet love to watch the images from the window...

Here's a view from my room on the 15th floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Seattle-the ETP crew and I (for the uninitiated the ETP stands for the EuroTrash Paradise talk group-we're film geeks, the lot of us-but 1stly were all good friends) were all bundled into a group of rooms on the tenth floor...that is until I arrived Thursday evening and tried to check in.

It seems that two of my ETP brethren had some air conditioning troubles with their room and wanted to get a room with one that worked-the thing is, they got MY ROOM- the slight awkwardness of the situation didn't much matter to me after I saw the priceless look on the young lady's face who was waiting on us-when she then asked my name and she realized she had just given my room to my friends her "deer in the headlights" look made it all worthwhile...;o)

Below we are looking downhill (lotsa hills in Seattle-reminded me of the streets of San Francisco-the place not the tv show) past a few of my buddies at the famous Pike Place Fish Market.

We had a very aromatic stroll thru the place,enjoying the smells,the tastes (they give out lotsa free samples) and the sights (HUGE frikking Alaskan King Crab legs, salmon the size of a St. Bernard and a distinctly ugly and prehistoric looking creature called the Monk fish) and at the end of it we ate at a great little place called the Pike Brewing Co.a brewery/restaurant where we had a fine meal and many brews (including a sampler of six small glasses of ale-light to dark- including my two faves the Naughty Nellie-now renamed the Naughty Neily-and the Kilt Lifter-fill in your own comments...;o)

Afterwards our resident Beer Snob,Bryan,proceeded to spill a mug of ale all over our fearless leader, Wolfy (perhaps in response to Wolfy's and my blasphemous ale sampler drinking style: we downed each glass like a whiskey shot) and then we moved on to our next destination...

Yes, we descended into the selfsame darkness that TV's intrepid reporter and part time monster hunter, Carl Kolchak did when he sought out the mysterious Dr. Richard Malcolm-otherwise known as the Night Strangler.

I'm sorry to say we never got to see the great old building Malcolm hid away in all those years as our tour guides insisted no such place existed...

...yeah...

...right.

But the tour itself is a joy to experience (even on this, my second trip to the place) thanks certainly to the sights of bits of historic old Seattle and the very entertaining tour guides, but mainly to the consumption by we ETPers of even more brews which are served in a bar attached to the sight of the tour's starting place...;o)

After our exhausting jaunt thru the dark,cobwebby corridors of Seattle's past we had worked up quite a thirst so on our way back to the hotel we stopped for a well deserved brew or two at a little Irish Pub called Fado.

Therein we were served several tall glasses of various ales (and a round of shots of Jamison's) by a buxom lass whose name escapes me (tho her ample form does not) which,considering the amount of brews we consumed over the course of that day, I'm surprised i recall as much as I do...;o)

Bryan took a picture of the aforementioned lassie and meself which I have yet to see-methinks it shall not please me wifey...ahem...;o)

Naughty Neily...

Below is a pic of our pleasant evening at the Casa del Senn- Bryan and his lovely wifey helped make this an enjoyable time by serving up BBQ, brews (he IS the Beer Snob after all) and baked goodies-all capped off with film viewings (a Santo flick and TARGET EARTH) on his LARGE TV screen (someday i too will own such a device!)

The photo below is of the ETPers enjoying a couple fantastic burgers and shakes at the famous Dick's Burgers (and yes,the various rude puns one immediately thinks of were traded amongst us all weekend ;o) we had stopped at Dick's on our way to see a film called OSS 117 (see above blog entry for details on this funny movie) which we saw at a small "arthouse" kind of theater-very enjoyable night and I wish I could go see films with this group of guys more often...;o)

The below shot is of Wolfy and Brucie enjoying the good food served at a Thai restaurant called Ayutthaya. (I had the accurately named Heavenly Beef-yummm) Many Singhas were consumed.

I had never had Thai food before and I look forward to the next time (but I'm taking a cab there as it was about 14 blocks on foot-all UPHILL! but the walk back-DOWNHILL- was much more relaxing-lol) especially if we are in Seattle again...;o)

Well, that was but a small fraction of the doings by the ETP last weekend and i wish i took more pix (I missed a few sights as I was also appearing at the Emerald City Con in my duties as comic artist-a great show run by great people-thanks to both friends and fans alike-someday i shall return) and i hope to add a few more that were taken by my brethren soon-until next we chat...

About Me

"Neil Vokes is a true original -- creative, cantankerous, enthusiastic and an all-around great guy. I started working with him on Vampirella, and when he was fired from the book by know-nothing bean counters, I called him up to tell him not to take it personally, it's not as if they had any taste or judgment.
That call led to several collaborations, and a warm friendship. I hope I'll still be coming up with projects Neil and I can do together until I retire, and I hope we're friends for even longer.
If you know Neil's work, you know why I like it so much. If you don't, check out the site. You've got a treat in store..."
--Kurt Busiek